Giffords’ poll: Texans support gun background checks, open carry

AUSTIN — Despite a culture of gun ownership, most Texans support requiring background checks for all firearm sales, according to a poll recently commissioned by former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ gun-safety organization.

Eighty-five percent of likely voters support a change in law to require the checks for private gun transfers, according to the poll. They are currently only needed for sales from licensed firearm dealers.

Smaller majorities of Texans support allowing open carry for those with concealed handgun licenses (54 percent), requiring subjects of restraining orders to turn in their guns (61 percent), preventing convicted domestic abusers access to firearms (79 percent), according to the poll. Support is even smaller for banning high-capacity ammunition magazines (48 percent), allowing teachers to carry openly in classrooms (44 percent) and allowing students to possess guns on college campuses (35 percent), according to the poll.

The poll, which was provided exclusively to the Houston Chronicle in advance of wider distribution, was conducted April 21-28 by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, a Democratic pollster. It included 1,000 likely 2016 voters interviewed live, including by cell phone, in English and Spanish. It had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

The poll may signal an interest in Texas by Giffords, an Arizona Democrat who was shot in the head during a constituent meeting in January 2011, and her husband, astronaut Mark Kelly.

A strategist for the organization that Giffords and Kelly founded, Americans for Responsible Solutions, would only say the group is “closely watching and doing research in a number of states.”

The group’s senior adviser, Pia Carusone, said in a statement that, “this research confirms what we’ve long known: there is widespread support among voters – including gun owners and NRA members – for common-sense policies that prevent gun violence. Even in states with long, proud traditions of gun ownership like Texas, talking about ways to reduce gun violence does not have to be a political liability – far from it.”

Carusone said the poll specifically found that Hispanic voters are inclined to support gun laws after hearing arguments from both sides.

“Candidates have much to gain among the state’s Hispanic voters – and particularly Hispanic women – when they stand up for common-sense solutions to gun violence,” she said.